obama urged congress to extend these benefits. >> these are people we know. they are our friends and our neighbors. they sit next to us in church and volunteer in our communities. their kids play with our kids. they include 20,000 veterans who serve this country with honor. >> but reminding them of the american social compact hasn't lately been enough to sway republicans and certainly doesn't seem to be doing so now. appearing on abc, gop senator rob portman acted as if helping unemployed was some kind of strange exotic government activity that didn't belong in normal funding discussions. >> $25 billion no one was talking about until the last week, so it's an additional cost within this budget agreement. i think the thought was this would be handled separately. >> but as usual on the subject of fairness, no republican can out-republican kentucky senator rand paul. >> i do support unemployment benefits for the 26 weeks they are paid for. if you extend it beyond that, you do a disservice to these workers. when you allow people to be on unemployment insurance fo